Family Motivated Ka Tunying to Put Up a Bakery and Resto Business

Ka Tunying’s Café is a joint venture between broadcast journalist Anthony Taberna and his wife of nearly 10 years, Rossel. The couple had built their restaurant with their family, both nuclear and extended, in their minds.

For starters, Anthony, who’s also known by his broadcast moniker Tunying, has named the restaurant after his late father, Antonio Taberna Sr. “S’ya talaga ’yong Tunying. Junior n’ya ako,” says the ABS-CBN talent who anchors the radio programs Tapatan ni Tunying and Dos Por Dos (along with fellow commentator Gerry Baja), as well as co-hosting the TV show Umagang Kay Ganda.

KA TUNYING THE BREADWINNERAnthony related to SmartParenting.com.ph during a recent visit to the Timog Avenue branch of Ka Tunying’s Café that his father worked as a bus driver to provide for him and his six siblings, three of whom are older than him. The middle child chipped in by selling small items like the saluyot stalks he’d gather from a rice field near their place in San Antonio, a town in Nueva Ecija. Other times, he would climb coconut trees and pick leaves that he’d turn into walis tingting. Anthony now believed it was these experiences that gave him a business acumen at an early age.

On his second year as a Mass Communications student at New Era University (he was 17), Anthony started working as a news writer at the DZEC radio station. He focused on his work on radio especially when he became the family’s breadwinner, following his father’s stroke. He eventually moved to DZMM and its mother network, ABS-CBN, where he gained popularity as a reporter, commentator, and anchor.

Putting up a bakery was a consensus suggestion among the family members. “Actually, mahilig lang kaming kumain ng tinapay pero wala namang marunong gumawa ng tinapay,” he points out, chuckling. Nevertheless they opened a small bakery in their place and called it Ka Tunying’s Tinapay, Kape, at Iba Pa (which was later renamed Tunying’s Bread).

Hiring a dependable baker proved to be a challenge, so Anthony decided to enroll his brother-in-law in a baking course at the government-run learning institution Technology and Livelihood Resource Center (TLRC). The bakery turned out to be a success. It attracted a lot of customers, many of whom bought baked goodies such as chocolate crinkles and Spanish bread as pasalubong to their loved ones in Metro Manila. Eventually, those Metro Manila-based patrons placed orders, and the bakery began supplying their products to some outlets.

FINDING HIS FOREVERSometime in 2005, when Anthony’s broadcasting career was gaining momentum and his family business was picking up, he met his future wife, whose maiden name is Rossel Velasco. They were introduced by a common friend and fellow Iglesia ni Cristo member.

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By the time they became boyfriend-girlfriend, Anthony was 31, and Rossel was 21. While he had already established his career, Rossel was still building hers. She tried her luck in showbiz by auditioning to GMA-7’s reality TV artista search, StarStruck, in the same batch that produced eventual winners, Kris Bernal and Aljur Abrenica. Though Rossel didn’t make the cut, she found work as a cast member in the Kapuso network’s comedy prank show, Bitoy’s Funniest Videos. She stayed in the now defunct show for more than three years.

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Anthony and Rossel tied the knot on January 14, 2008. They now have two children, both girls, namely Zoey, 8, and Helga, 7. They also consider their restaurant, Ka Tunying’s Café, their baby.

He and his wife found the perfect spot along Visayas Avenue in Quezon City to sell baked products. Then they started serving hot meals through an all-day breakfast fare, which became a hit among their patrons. Sensing they had a winner in their hands, they expanded the menu to include dishes from Anthony’s home province.

The bakery formally became a full-service restaurant with the birth of Ka Tunying’s Café in August 2015. A year later, the owners opened a branch on Timog Avenue, also in Quezon City, and soon after, another branch at the Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

For a quick bite, there are pasta dishes with a twist, such as Tinapa Carbonara and Ka-Love-Asa Lasagna, which is a no-meat baked dish layered with zucchini, eggplant, tomato sauce, cheese, and lots of kalabasa. Heatlhy eaters have several options: the familiar Caesar Salad, Escabeche Salmon Belly, and Ukoy mixed with kalabasa bits. The sweet tooth will get satisfaction with the KTC Dessert Platter, which includes biko-latik, ube macapuno, and turon with tsoknut.

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He explains further how and why marriage and business can mix in their case. “Ako kasi, kuwan ako, magaling akong taga-pakinig,” he begins. “Maganda na maging consultative lagi ang mga decisions. Meaning, as a couple running this kind of business, especially so that we invest a lot in this kind of business…

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Perhaps one of the most important discussion the couple has had in bed is their decision to partner with The Bistro Group of Restaurants, which is behind the popular restaurant chains TGIFridays, Italiannis, Denny’s, Texas Roadhouse, and Buffalo Wild Wings. The partnership, he explains, is geared toward the expansion program of Ka Tunying’s Café, which includes franchising.